Then-Pittsburgh wide receiver Mike Wallace (17) fumbles the ball against the Baltimore Ravens during their game on November 18, 2012 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

It's always easy for paranoid Minnesotans to blame the weather when top free agents sign with warm-weather teams instead of our frozen-tundra favorites.

In the case of wide receiver Mike Wallace, that was exactly the case.

Wallace, who has asthma, signed a five-year, $60 million deal with the Miami Dolphins shortly after free agency began March 12. He wanted to head south to warmer weather after playing four seasons in Pittsburgh, his father said.

"The (Vikings) had come to the point where they were telling him, 'You don't have to live here; just be here during the season,' " Wallace's father, Mike Jr., said in an interview with the Miami Herald. "He wanted to get out of that snow and cold weather."

Minnesota signed Greg Jennings to a five-year, $47.5 million deal March 15, and while Wallace signed with the Dolphins an hour into free agency, Jennings wasn't ready to start lining up free-agent visits until the next day.

Vikings general manager Rick Spielman said the team contacted Jennings' agent, Eugene Parker, during the three-day negotiating period leading up to free agency. Parker told Spielman on March 13 that the receiver was ready to visit Minnesota.

The Vikings brought Jennings to town March 14 and did not start negotiating a contract until March 15, Spielman said.

If Wallace's father is to be believed, the Vikings would have been courting both Wallace and Jennings in the days leading up to free agency, while trying to finalize the trade that sent Percy Harvin to Seattle on March 11.

Advertisement

Wallace's father did not tell the Herald how much money the Vikings offered his son, saying only that it was more than what the Dolphins gave him.